jackets were of colored broadcloth with
buttons of silver or gold, not brass; but the trousers were at once the
glory and the vanity of the wearer. Gold and silver buttons ornamented
the seams of the legs from hip to knee. There were gold clasps at the
garter and gold clasps at the knee. A silk sash with tasseled cords or
fringe hanging down one side took the place of modern suspenders.
Leather leggings for outdoor wear were carved or embossed. A serape or
velvet cape lined with bright-colored silk completed the costume.
Bridles and horse trappings were gorgeous with silver, the pommel and
stirrups being overlaid with it. The bridle was a barbarous silver thing
with a bit cruel enough to control tigers; and the rowels of the spurs
were two or three inches long.

No, these were not people of French and Spanish courts. They were people
of our own Western America less than a century ago; but though they were
not people of the playhouse, as they almost seem to us, they are
essentially a play-people. The Spaniard of the Southwest lived, not to
work, but to play; and when he worked, it was only that he might play
the harder. Los Americanos came and changed all that. They turned the
Spanish play-world up side down and put work on top. Roam through the
Governor's Palace! Call up the old gay life! We undoubtedly handle more
money than the Spanish dons and donas of the old days; but
frankly--which stand for the more joy out of life; those laughing
philosophers, or we modern work-demons?

CHAPTER X

THE GOVERNOR'S PALACE OF SANTA FE (_Continued_)

Of all the traditions clinging round the old Palace at Santa Fe, those
connected with Don Diego de Vargas, the reconqueror of New Mexico, are
best known and most picturesque. Yearly, for two and a quarter
centuries, the people of New Mexico have commemorated De Vargas' victory
by a procession to the church which he built in gratitude to Heaven for
his success. This procession is at once a great public festival and a
sacred religious ceremony; for the image of the Virgin, which De Vargas
used when he planted the Cross on the Plaza in front of the Palace and
sang the Te Deum with the assembled Franciscan monks, is the same image
now used in the theatrical procession of the religious ceremony yearly
celebrated by Indians, Spanish and Americans.

The De Vargas procession is a ceremony unique in America. The very
Indians whose ancestors De Vargas' arms subjugated, now yearly ree